I did not have a $8 Bypass but can vote for me?

He's a millionaire Minister. He pays only $8, yes, a measly $8 and he gets to stay in a top of the table "A" Class Ward when he went for his Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery and the mainstream media made a meal of it. Being the Health Minister, I guess you get different treatment in your Hospital or even from mainstream media. I mean who would want to mess around with Boss?

As a Health Minister, why on earth would he want to tell the whole world of how cheap it is to get serviced for a dreaded disease and potential heart attack?

Is he telling us:

1. How affordable hospital charges are in Singapore?
2. How great CPF Medisave is?
3. The magic that CPF Medishield can do?
4. Everybody must buy much more health insurance than what Medishield provides or more than one can afford?
5. He is an expert in his financial planning?
6. He is so rich he can afford to pay premiums over and above CPF Medishield?
7. He, like GCT, is trying to get more poor Singaporeans insured so that poorer folks won't have to disturb the Government (MYCS?) for help when things unpleasant like accident, sickness or bereavement happens?

Holy $8! The ivory tower has indeed blinded so many in power. Why on earth brag on how much you saved or how cheap it is to go through a traumatic experience like CABG? Having been given a second chance at life, I would have thought that one would have been humbled and be grateful for a second shot at life. One would live a life of empathy and caring and be sensitive to the sensitivities of others. especially the sick, the down and out, the poor and less fortunate.

What do they know from so high up? Or is it their refusal to know?

1. Does he know that most Singaporean are not as rich or as clever or as lucky as he?
2. Does he know of those who are too poor to see a neighborhood GP and have to queue for hours to see a doctor at Polyclinic long before the Polyclinic opens its doors for business?
3. Does he know some have to wait for weeks even months before they can have an appointment (through Polyclinic) to see a Specialist about their suspected serious illness?
4. Does he know about the additional cost patients have to cough up to use their Medisave to pay for medicines for chronic diseases. To pay an Admin Fee to use one's own Medisave is the most cruel joke on hapless patients. It's just like paying an extortioner to have the key to your own piggy bank?
5. Does he know of those who can only survive from hand to mouth. If you cannot afford food to fill your tummy, what insurance are we talking about? Before getting swell headed by his own savings and get carried away about higher payout by insurance companies, think, please think carefully of the hike in premiums. We are tired, very sick and tired of them messing around with our CPF without our permission.
6. Does he know about "Chiak pa, mai bway kee yau" = "When your tummy is full, do not forget the hungry years" or "Remember the goodbyes that were said before entering the cold operating theatre"?
7. Does he know that showing off may win some senseless toadies but decent blokes abhor braggarts?

If I were a Health Minister, I would not tell my countrymen and women of how cheap it is to pay for hospital procedures. I would ask them:

1. To be healthy, to stay healthy.
2. To eat carefully with good health in mind.
3. To avoid sedentary lifestyle and do regular exercise to stay fit.
4. To avoid stress by not mindlessly chasing after Cash, Condo, Credit Card, Car and Casino.
5. To learn to be Confident, Creative, Competent and most important to be Content and not to be rats in this crazy rat race where the creed is to 'fix and buy' power, pay yourself and yours obscenely well and suck the rest dry.
   
6. To understand that the greatest gift we can give those we love is to stay healthy.

No, I would not tell them how cheap it is to get sick but I'd encourage them to avoid sickness by living a healthy lifestyle. It should be health promotion and sickness prevention and not about how money-smart one is to pay only $8 for a CABG surgery!

It's crazy. It makes a mockery of what health is about.

So, can vote for me?

feedmetothefish :)